Wounded
by Victoria123Fangirling
Summary: When Adrien's friends visit him in the hospital, Marinette can't help but notice how often he looks at her. Especially as he talks about the mysterious girl who saved him. Reveal fic.


**Wounded**

 **Summary: When Adrien's friends visit him in the hospital, Marinette can't help but notice how often he looks at her. Especially as he talks about the mysterious girl who saved him. Reveal fic.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous.**

A shot rang out from the akumatized victim's weapon as Ladybug leaped over the victim grabbing her headband. Just as she snapped it in two she caught sight of Chat Noir. He had been on her flank as she approached the victim and now he was lying on the ground in pain. He had taken the bullet she had just dodged.

"Chat Noir!" A sense of urgency overtook her. If she could just set things right with Miraculous Ladybug, everything would be okay. She didn't have time to think otherwise. Ladybug threw out her yo-yo and caught the akuma. As quickly as she could, she de-evilized the butterfly and tossed her lucky charm into the air. She ran to Chat, hoping he would be back on his feet in no time. Instead, time passed, and Chat was bleeding out.

"No, no, no!" Tears threatened to fall. _This was not happening!_ Everything was supposed to be set back. Didn't that mean the bullet hole would be healed?

Ladybug was frantic. There was a hospital around the corner if only she could get him there. An akuma attack in the dead of night didn't help her situation as anyone who had been around and could help had ran during the attack. It was only her and Chat.

"Come on, Kitty," she tried to encourage him as she picked him up, careful not to make the wound worse. She set off in the direction of the hospital.

* * *

Nearly there, Ladybug was all but dragging Chat Noir. In a weak voice, he had tried to speak, but it all kept coming out mumbled.

"Almost there," Ladybug kept saying. "You're going to be alright." It was more for herself than Chat, but it kept her going. She could see the building now, but it was still another ten feet before she would be able to call for help. Ignoring the obnoxious beeping coming from their miraculous, she pressed on. To make things worse it had started to rain, and Ladybug felt cold inside and out, tears flowing freely.

Chat Noir was her partner. She couldn't lose him. She needed him. Not just to stop akumas, but she couldn't believe how badly she wanted to hear a pun from his lips. Even poorly timed flirting would be better than the weak mumbles and groans she was hearing now.

"Almost there," Ladybug repeated like a broken record. A few more steps.

Chat Noir's voice was louder and clearer all the sudden. "La-!"

She looked down at him and quickly realized he was transforming. _This had not been how things were supposed to go!_ At the edge of the emergency building, she put him down. She was about to call for help and duck into an alley before her own transformation happened, but instead she choked on another sob. Before her, a hole in his side staining his white jacket red, lay Adrien. She could see him straining to keep his eyes on hers.

"Adrien?" she croaked. _How could this be happening?_ In any other circumstance she would be ecstatic, even find it laughable. But right here, right now, all she could think was that she was about to lose two of the boys she loved at the same time, and it was all her fault.

"M'Lady," he slurred, trying to give her a smile.

She tried to smile for him but was distracted by a groan at his side. Laying on the sidewalk was a little black cat kwami. Despite no visible injuries, he looked about as well as Adrien did.

As she went to pick him up, she felt her own transformation happen.

"Plagg!" Tikki cried seeing her fellow kwami.

"I'll be fine," he groaned like she was needlessly fussing, but he sounded as weak as his miraculous holder. Tikki flew around him like a hummingbird.

"We'll take him to Master Fu," Marinette said placing them both in her bag.

"I'll take care of him until then," Tikki said as she flew into the bag. "You take care of Adrien." She sounded as stressed as her master.

"Mmmari…" Marinette suddenly looked up, realizing their identities had been revealed. Adrien looked like he was about to fall asleep. They had wasted too much time already. She ran past the edge of the building so that the hospital personnel could see her and shouted for help.

She knelt back by Adrien as a team came running. She grabbed his hand to get his attention. He felt cold. "You're going to be okay. They're going to take care of you."

As she moved away, she just barely heard Adrien speak. "M-ring." She knew what he was trying to say and slipped off the miraculous ring as her hand slid away from his. The paramedics surrounded him then, coming around the building.

"Be strong, Chat Noir," she whispered as she walked backwards. Before anyone could ask about where she had found him and who she was, she turned and ran. She couldn't come up with a story right now. All she could do for Adrien was pray he made it through and take care of his kwami.

* * *

Master Fu awoke to a loud banging at his door and wobbled as fast as he could to answer it. Very few people could be here at this time of night. Wayzz already awake sensing his fellow kwamis' distress hovered behind the old man.

Master Fu opened the door to a soaking wet and miserable Marinette. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she was breathing heavily as if she had run all the way here. He ushered her in immediately.

"Chat…" she breathed. "Adrien… bullet… hospital… kwami!"

"Breathe, child," Master Fu took her to his living room and set a kettle on the stove top for tea. "Sit and tell me what is wrong."

Marinette sat and in the middle of the elderly man's warm room, she felt calmer than she had since Chat had been shot. She reached into her bag as Master Fu sat across from her.

"There was an akuma. I dodged a bullet." She took a deep breath. "Chat Noir took it instead." Fresh tears started to brim her eyes and she sniffed. "I took him to the hospital, but he detransformed and…" She brought out Plagg in her hands.

"Oh my." Master Fu took the little cat kwami.

Tikki hovered. "Please help him, Master!" Tikki pleaded.

"It will take some time, but I'm sure Plagg will be back to his old self soon." Marinette felt a large weight off her shoulders. "He has faired worse if you remember, Tikki."

"Of course! I just- he…"

"I understand," he stopped the ladybug kwami. "He is your yang."

Tikki nodded. She then looked at her chosen. Marinette's shoulders sagged, and tears stained her face. The kwami zoomed over to her and hugged her cheek. "Our boys will be alright," she spoke softly.

Marinette nodded and sniffed. "What- what about Adrien? Would… would you have been able to heal him too?" She knew Master Fu had been too far away, but she worried she had not made the right choice leaving him at the hospital now.

"You did the right thing, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Adrien is in good care. In fact, we can tell he is doing well as Plagg seems to only be tired at the moment." Plagg let out a sleepy moan. He did seem to be doing better than he had outside the hospital. "Their connection gives us valuable insight. I think with some time, medicine, and cheese, Plagg will be doing better. And so will Adrien."

"Mmm, cheese," the kwami mumbled in his sleep. Tikki petted the top of his head and gave a quiet giggle.

"You didn't see him, Master Fu… I hope you are right."

Master Fu nodded. "You can leave Plagg here with me. I think some sleep is much needed for you."

Marinette nodded, and a yawn slipped out. As she sighed, she remembered Chat Noir's ring.

"Oh!" She pulled it out of her bag. "You better keep this too."

"Thank you, Marinette. Now please go home and get some rest."

Marinette stood and walked to the door. Opening it she remembered the rainy darkness. She looked to Tikki, about to swing quickly home as Ladybug, but she saw her kwami so focused on the little black cat that she hadn't even noticed her chosen was leaving. Marinette gave a pained smile. "Tikki." The kwami looked up suddenly as if she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to. "I'll come get you in the morning, okay?"

Tikki visibly relaxed. "Thank you, Marinette. Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. Master Fu, thank you. You have made me feel much better."

He nodded at the teenager and she left into the night.

* * *

Despite the rain and eerie feeling of being in the city at night without her kwami, Marinette was grateful for the walk home. It wasn't far, and it gave her time to think. Chat Noir would be okay. His kwami was doing better already which meant he was doing better. She took a deep breath. Chat Noir's kwami- Adrien's kwami, because… Adrien was Chat Noir. She had seen it with her own eyes and yet her brain was still trying to process the information. Adrien was kind, sweet, and stood up for others. Chat Noir was silly, flirty, and well… all those things too, she supposed. Adrien was her crush and she loved him, and Chat Noir had admitted to being in love with Ladybug and she loved him too, just in a different way. But now they were the same person and somehow it made sense.

In the back of her brain she realized she had revealed herself to Chat Noir. Chat Noir, Adrien now knew she was Ladybug. Would his feelings still exist? Chat had always said he didn't care who was under the mask. But how much of that had been flirting and how much was truth? Would he even remember Marinette was Ladybug? He had been so out of it from the blood loss. The thought made her groan. They would practically be at square one except she would know who he was. And she would just be awkward around both of them- him. She rolled her eyes at herself. Now wasn't the time to worry about her own actions and failure to get Adrien to ask her out; Adrien was in the hospital. He was hurt, and she needed him to be okay. Not just because Marinette cared about her crush but because Ladybug needed her partner.

Marinette had snuck into her apartment, worried that going through the front door would wake her parents since her usual roof-top landing was not an option, but she made it in and slept restlessly until about 10 the next morning when Alya called her.

Marinette answered sluggishly, but Alya's voice rang clear and worried. "Did you hear what happened to Adrien?"

"Huh?"

"Girl! He's in the hospital. Some muggers or something when his bodyguard wasn't around. Nino and I were going to go see him this afternoon, you in?"

Marinette had woken up more at the word hospital bringing back her memories from the night before. "Yeah- yeah, of course. He's… he's taking visitors? He's feeling well enough?"

"I guess so. Nino seemed worried, but he said Nathalie hadn't given him much. Just thought she should let his friends know…"

"Well that was… nice of her." How had Nathalie found out? And if she knew, it was guaranteed Gabriel Agreste was aware of his son's injuries. Hopefully this didn't mean Adrien was going to be homeschooled again. What was she thinking? What did this mean for his secret identity? What exactly was the story Chat Noir fabricated?

"Yeah. Meet us outside the hospital at one?"

"Sounds good. I'll see you there."

* * *

After doing a few chores in the bakery, Marinette went to Master Fu's. Both to pick up Tikki and check on Plagg. She hoped she would receive some good news to bring to Adrien about his kwami. How she would tell him with Nino and Alya there she didn't know, but maybe she would be able to leave a note.

"He's doing much better, Marinette," Tikki said excitedly when she arrived. "I bet it means Adrien's doing much better too!"

Marinette smiled at her kwami. "I hope you're right, Tikki. Actually, Alya, Nino, and I are going to see him later. I hope you'll come with me?"

"Oh of course, Marinette!" Tikki sounded much happier today than she had the night before. "Master Fu is taking good care of Plagg. I trust him."

Master Fu smiled at the kwami then addressed Marinette. "It is good to hear that Adrien will be taking visitors. If you have the chance, please tell him that I will visit him when Plagg is doing well enough."

"Sure thing." She nodded, and Master Fu invited her to lunch.

After their meal, Marinette realized just how close it was to one. "Oh! Come on, Tikki! It's time to go see Adrien."

Tikki zoomed into Marinette's purse and they were off to the hospital.

* * *

Alya waved to her friend as Marinette approached them in front of the hospital. "I'm glad you made it. I was just thinking maybe I never told you which hospital he was in. But apparently I did."

She hadn't but Marinette chuckled with her. "Nope, you did, you definitely did." Then she saw the flowers in Nino's hand. "Oh, why didn't I think to bring anything?! What if he thinks I don't care enough?"

Marinette berated herself. The habit of being completely obsessed with what Adrien thought was hard to break, and she realized how odd it sounded now that she knew she was also talking about Chat Noir. Of course he wouldn't think she didn't care. She had brought him to the hospital in the first place. If he remembered.

"Relax, girl. You can take them in." Alya released her boyfriend's hand and grabbed for the flowers. Practically throwing them at Marinette, she said. "It'll save us all from the embarrassment of Nino calling them 'broses'."

Marinette giggled, and Nino pouted. "Adrien loves puns. It would have made him laugh."

The girls chuckled and rolled their eyes. Alya told him to make something else up as they moved into the hospital.

* * *

Adrien immediately brightened seeing his friends enter his hospital room. He was hooked up to an IV most likely of morphine and a few monitors kept track of his vitals. There were already 2 huge bouquets of flowers in the room, but he seemed happy to see Marinette holding the simple roses. If she wasn't normally self-conscious, she felt an even heavier weight of insecurity in the room now.

"Are those for me? Here." He moved his hand, trying to push one of the large bouquets to the side so there was room for the smaller one closer to him on the bedside table.

"I've got it!" Marinette chimed in, rushing over to the table not wanting him to hurt himself. She moved the bigger vase to the left and caught sight of _Bourgeois_ on the little card. The corner of her lips quirked as she placed the friends' bouquet on the table. The whole time she felt Adrien's eyes on her.

"Thanks, Marinette!" he said enthusiastically as she turned around.

"Oh, um, you're welcome. They're actually from-" She caught Alya's pointed look. "They're from all of us."

"Oh, well, thank you." He looked at the couple in the room.

"No problem, dude," Nino spoke up. "How you doing?"

"I'm good actually. Just don't like being stuck here." He glanced at Marinette and she felt herself blush. Just like a cat, she thought. Though she also remembered when she, as Ladybug, had put Adrien in a sarcophagus only to find him later saying he didn't like to be locked in. It had made her heart go out to him, realizing how much he was probably stuck in the Agreste mansion. Now she realized he had been Chat Noir the whole time and another part of her reality merged together. Adrien gestured to the bag of clear liquid connected to his IV. "The morphine helps. Makes me sleepy though."

"Sleep helps your body heal," Marinette stated without thinking much of it. They all turned to look at her and she blushed again. "It does! It- It saves energy for fix- fixing you." She glanced at Adrien who had a cute smile on his face. A Chat Noir smile.

"You should go into medicine, Marinette. I bet you could _save a lot of lives_." Was that…?

She gave a nervous laugh. It didn't matter that she knew it was Chat Noir, Adrien still made her nervous. "Maybe, but I think I'd rather save people from fashion disasters."

Everyone laughed and Marinette's heart beat louder as Adrien kept his eyes on her. She was absolutely sure he remembered, but what if it was all coincidental? No, there was no way with what he just said.

Adrien winced as he laughed, and his hand went to his side.

"You okay, dude?" Nino asked.

"Yup, all good," Adrien replied, his posture relaxing back.

"So you know this is going on the school blog," Alya said pulling out her phone. "Adrien Agreste, do you remember what happened to you?"

The model rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Not all of it." He glanced at Marinette. "Some of it feels like a dream. I wanted out of the house so I snuck out without my bodyguard and took a walk. I was going back home when some mugger thought I looked like easy prey I guess. I didn't have anything on me though, so he shot me and bolted." Adrien shrugged. He spoke calmly, and Marinette would have believed him if she didn't know otherwise.

"How did you get to the hospital?" Alya asked.

"That's where it's kind of hazy. Someone must have found me and brought me here, but I don't remember. The paramedics said some girl shouted at them, but she disappeared before they could ask any questions."

Marinette could tell Adrien was trying very hard not to look her way.

"Do you think it was Ladybug?" Alya was excited at the prospect.

"Uh- I don't know. I mean why would she leave?"

"She was about to transform."

Marinette interjected. "But don't you think they would have recognized her?"

Alya frowned. "Ugh, you're probably right."

"You're really lucky, man. Whoever she was, I'm glad she was there," Nino spoke in a relieved tone.

"Me too," Adrien agreed, looking right at Marinette this time.

"Mm-hmm," she squeaked as if to agree with them.

His gaze lingered on her for another moment before a quiet beep from the background became more frequent. His eyes widened, and his face reddened. He whipped around looking at the heart monitor that betrayed him.

"Stupid thing. I swear its been doing that like every hour. No idea what's wrong with it," Adrien chuckled nervously trying to be nonchalant. He wasn't succeeding in the least, but he took a deep breath and the beep steadied out. Nino smirked as Alya looked excitedly between Adrien and Marinette's red faces.

"Nino!" Alya exclaimed making her boyfriend jump. "You never took me to lunch. I think I saw a vending machine at the end of the hall. Let's get something."

"But Alya we went to-"

"Do you guys want anything?" Before they could reply, Alya pushed Nino out the door.

Adrien and Marinette stared at the door where the other two had left.

"Well that's okay," Adrien said after a beat. "I think the only thing that sounds good right now is your dad's pie."

Marinette giggled. "I'll see what I can do."

Adrien chuckled then became serious. "Sooo… should we address the elephant in the room? Or should I say the Ladybug in the room?" He looked at her pointedly. Her eyes went wide, and her cheeks burned. "I do actually remember everything, so you know. I mean once I transformed it does feel very dreamlike, but I don't think I could forget the face of my Lady."

Marinette swallowed and gave a nod. "Yeah… um… I- I'm so sorry, Adrien!" she burst out. After last night, she didn't think she had any tears left, but more threatened to spill over now. Adrien seemed surprised. "I… I should have warned you. I nearly got you killed."

Adrien's hand shot out and took hold of her shoulder. He would have preferred her hand, but he couldn't reach it from his position on the bed. "No, you didn't. None of this is your fault. I should have anticipated her actions and moved. Don't you dare put this on yourself."

A few tears leaked out of Marinette's eyes and she leaned her head to the side to touch his hand. This was Chat Noir. With or without a mask, he knew just how to encourage her.

"I don't know what I would do without you, Chat Noir."

He smiled, his heart monitor catching a brief palpitation of his heart.

"Miss me until I came back from the dead and haunted you with paws-itively awful cat puns."

She laughed full heartedly at that. Adrien's thumb moved and hesitated before brushing away a tear trail on her cheek. Marinette looked into his eyes and now saw both her Chat Noir and Adrien. He equally saw both Ladybug and Marinette.

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "I can't believe I almost lost the 2 boys I love most at once," she whispered more to herself than him.

He raised his eyebrows and tried to keep his heart beat steady so the monitor would stop jumping around sporadically. "Love?" he asked, hope filling his voice. Could this beautiful girl really love him? All of him?

She laughed. She couldn't hold it back anymore. The only reason Chat had never had a chance was because of Adrien. Now it wasn't such a hard choice. "Yes!"

Adrien's smile was huge. "M'Ladybug." He moved his hand to her cheek.

She leaned against the edge of the bed. Could this moment really be happening? Adrien was looking at her with all the love she felt toward him and was leaning closer. Her eyes fluttered shut and the beeping on the heart monitor was increasing. She wanted to laugh about it, but didn't want to embarrass him further. As their noses touched, she whispered, "Master Fu."

"What?!" Adrien stopped and moved back.

"Sorry," she giggled, seeing Adrien's pout. "He wanted me to give you a message and Nino and Alya will probably be back anytime now."

"You know, they probably found a corner and are doing exactly what we were about to do." Adrien looked annoyed but was good natured.

Marinette flushed. "Do you want to know how Plagg is doing or not?"

The boy's face lit up remembering his kwami. "Plagg! Yes, is he with you?"

"No," she sighed. "He was in pretty bad shape too, but he's doing a lot better. Apparently if you get better, then so will he. Master Fu is also doing his energy thing and feeding him cheese." Adrien chuckled at that. "He says he will visit you with Plagg once he feels well enough."

"That's great. Thank you, Marinette."

"Of course," she smiled and leaned in. "Now, where were we?"

Adrien grinned. "About here," he said putting his nose on hers.

She giggled. "Chat." He made a happy hum before putting is lips to hers.


End file.
